Chris Proudman

It is testament to the UK’s world-class education system that four of this year’s Nobel prize winners (so far) were born and educated in the UK. They are Johnson and Robinson for economics, Hinton for physics and Hassabis for Chemistry. This is cause for pride and celebration. But it is also profoundly depressing that to fulfil their extraordinary potential, all four felt obliged either to move to North American universities (Johnson, Robinson and Hinton) or take US megabucks (from Google - Hassabis, and to a lesser extent Hinton). In other words their success shows both the success and the weakness of the UK. We create the so-called human capital, but the fruits of these outstanding brains are routinely reaped by other countries and economies, usually the US. Any British government should surely focus on what needs to change to retain great British talent, and the commercial revenues their ideas spawn, at home